i22 ARDENMOHR. 



for several misspent days, aimless rambles, field sports, 

 and light conversation ! ' 



" Good, prejudiced man." 



" Nonsense, Major. I know well enough there 

 are prejudices to be respected ; but in an honest 

 household, amongst decent people, he might have 

 found exercise for his exceptional wisdom. He was 

 not obliged to join frivolities, miss birds, or revoke at 

 whist." 



" Possibly he missed his wiser friends." 



" You are quizzing ; but the farce is, this stickler 

 for lost time among pleasant people in a lovely 

 country was a poor creature, incapable of enlighten- 

 ing his washerwoman; and, plainly, by his auto- 

 biographical showing, liked to be cock of a coterie, 

 and was far from blind to his own petty interests and 

 comforts." 



" Eheu ! Hope. It is as well you keep such 

 notions from Mrs. Grundy." 



" Ah, yes ; but Ardenmohr is a free country, Major : 

 one does not need proof here, nor, by the same token, 

 to weigh one's words much." 



" Nor to feel particularly uneasy if Uncle Anthony 

 thinks you should be in England at work, and I 

 somewhere cutting throats." 



